I normally prefer reading as it allows me to set my own pace and make highlights and take notes. That said, there's two books I listened to that I really prefered the audio books of:

• The Martian. I normally don't read/listen to fiction, but I really geeked out on this one. Also the diary-style format of the story works really well as an audio book, becuase it sounds like the protagonist is directly speaking to you.
• Creative Selection. About Apple's design process. Occasionally I would have prefered the regular book with images, etc. But they are mostly personal stories, read by the author.

there's no such thing as the best book.

the best book is the one that you find at the right time with your right skill levels. that's why recommending books is so hard.

i liked, insanely liked, $100m offers by alex hormozi.

probably the best damn business book i've ever read. granted i don't read a lot at all. maybe read like <5-10 books in my life other than school text books. but it was good enough for me to finish it.

watch his youtube channel & you'll find his advice to be great. here's one of my favorite video of his → www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHDT…

the other one i recommend reading as startup founder is traction because it teaches you marketing.

unless you make something truly innovative, you need to do marketing to get customers. this book tells you how to do marketing in ~15-20 different ways. covers everything from seo to pr.

i've read half of this book.

the other good one is the cold start problem but i guess that's for marketplaces. i have only read it first 20-40 pages but found it really insightful.

i also liked good to great by jim collins. he analysed what makes companies great through publicly available research for 5 years & found interesting insights & shared it with the world.

his podcast with tim ferriss is also a banger. must-listen.

but other than that, i'd listen to biographies. i absolutely love the founders podcast by david senra. he covers biographies.

the reason biographies are great is because you don't see a bunch of bullets. you see a story & why they made that decision so it makes the ideas stick. try listening to episodes like the polaroid one, steve jobs, jeff bezos, nike's shoe dog & you'll find yourself listening to biographies more.

david senra, the host also did the podcast which is the best podcast (i also liked jim collins x tim ferriss) i've found this year → www.joincolossus.com/episodes…

I'm just about to finish Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares - it gives you a nice high-level overview of the ins and outs of almost every channel you should use in getting traction for your product.

Suits me at my point in the journey, but would be too high-level for someone already deep in their own channels.

• SPRINT: Solve Big Problems and Test Ideas in just 5 days. (Probably THE book a lot of founders should read, but don’t)

• Built to Last: successful habits of visionary companies

Non-fic

• Anything you want
• Man's Search for Meaning
• When Breath Becomes Air
• Deep work
• Rework
• Ego is the enemy
• The lean startup

Fiction

• The golden compass series
• Dark matter
• Ready player one

Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman - It's convincing me to be more patient and limit work sessions.

Pushing beyond the limits; "includes a big component of impatience about not being finished, not being productive enough, about never again finding such an ideal time’.

More about understanding how and why we live/work, which if you are bootstrapping, optimizing yourself is your startup :p

Deep Work by Cal Newport for similar reasons above.

The Practice By Seth Godin - focuses on how to do creative work.

Extreme Ownership - By Jocko Willink, an ex navy seal. This book is all about leadership, it was extremely useful when I started managed a team at my previous business. It focuses on the mentality and understanding that winning or losing comes down to the leader, and not to shift blame elsewhere. Anything by this guy is solid gold.

• Influence - Robert Cialdini
• How to Get Rich - Felix Dennis
• Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
• Built to Sell - John Warrillow

A couple I don't see here yet:

• Company of One
• The Artist's Way
• Small Giants
• Reality is Broken
• So Good They Can't Ignore You

I would recommend these:

-Essentialism.
-Demand-side sales 101.
-Atomic Habits.
-Traction

Definitely check out The Mom Test if you haven't before!

I highly recommend "The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It"
www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited…

The idea is very simple, just because you bake amazing cakes does not mean that you can run a successful bakery. This book forces you to identify different roles that are needed to make your business successful and then figure out how to onboard, train, and use them.

This book is quite dated but the concepts in this book are still relevant.

My favorites:
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
- Essentialism
- The Millionaire Fast Lane

I ended up joining a reading group that put together a list around the Personal MBA & includes ~50 books, articles, audio books, and blogs. Organized by topic per week.

Here's my copy of the list: mused.notion.site/Business-Se…

Also Make (readmake.com/) -- like condensing those titles for an indie hacker.

I try to buy independently to get around vendor lock-in--as a result, my digital shelf is scattered. If anyone has recommendations for managing epubs and pdfs, I'd love to hear. 🙏🏻